Launched from John Brown's shipyard on the Clyde on 20 September 1967, the 70,000-ton QE2 was the last passenger liner to be built on the Clyde.

The owners, Cunard, announced this week that the ship is to make a return visit to the Clyde next year - precisely on the anniversary of her launch. The luxury liner will berth at Greenock as part of a round-Britain tour, which will include South Queensferry, near Edinburgh. Since her launch, she has sailed almost 5.5 million nautical miles and carried 2.1 million passengers.

Cool tanks for that Appollo, must remember to go visit. I remember the day of the luanch as clears if it were yesterday, we were allowed to watch the launch in class. It was a drama class and I was due to give a very badly prepared speech, but it was posponed to the following week allowing me suficient time to prepare.

We got the day off school to watch it. I remember standing at the top of Kilbowie Rd. & Seeing her sink from view (no pun intended) Saw the Queen pass by in her big car, it struck me how bright it was inside, must have had extra lighting fitted.
This was the scene outside the main gate at John Browns.

HollowHorn wrote:We got the day off school to watch it. I remember standing at the top of Kilbowie Rd. & Seeing her sink from view (no pun intended) Saw the Queen pass by in her big car, it struck me how bright it was inside, must have had extra lighting fitted. This was the scene outside the main gate at John Browns.

I didn't get the day off school officially, so I bunked off and went there anyway. I was near the main gate with my wee camera and a policeman saw me and took pity and moved me right to the front. I had hoped to get photos of the ship, but, of course I could see nothing from there, because of the high wall, so I took pictures of the Queen instead, despite my disinterest in the Royals.
I was going to go to Gratispool, across from Glasgow Green, to get them developed, but a girlfriend of my cousin was working at a photo lab at the time and promised to get them printed cheaply for me.
She lost the spool and I never did get my pictures, but I remember how proud I was that day when I heard the cheering as the ship slid into the Clyde. I was disappointed at the name, although I guess it was always on the cards.
We were talking about this some time ago and my brother-in-law had been across the other side, filming the launch. When the ship slid into the Clyde, they all had to run like the clappers or risk getting drowned because of the huge wave she caused at the displacement of the water.

We used to do work for John Brown Engineering, the gas turbine division, and we had to visit various areas of the site. Short cuts and rat runs took us through a number of the open sheds that lined the dock side of the yard, and it was interesting to see many of the wooden patterns for QE2 just piled up in some of the sheds, and gathering dust.

They looked as if they had never been touched since the day they were thrown in the sheds, and still had their pattern numbers clearly chalked on them and readable.

If only those wanders had been more recent, with a pocket digi. I carried a camera back then, but most security desks were pretty hostile, so tended to leave it when at work.

There was a cracking QE2 documentary on BBC2 last night, some amazing footage of the cranes slowly collapsing when the area was being cleared.
QE2 The Last Great liner

Also, on Radio Scotland at 11.30 tomorrow:11:30 Clydebuilt Luxury
1/2. The Story of the QE2: Forty years ago, crowds gathered to celebrate the launch of the QE2. This programme meets some of the people involved in creating a world famous liner.